The present invention relates to a connector adapted to connect a signal line for transmitting a signal at a high speed.
A connector apparatus of a vertical-connection type is for use in connecting a back board and a package board arranged to be perpendicular to the back board. The connector apparatus comprises a back board side connector mounted on the back board and a package board side connector mounted on the package board to be connected to and disconnected from the back board side connector.
The back board side connector comprises a number of contacts arranged in arrays in first and second directions perpendicular to each other on the back board to form a matrix. As the contacts of the back board side connector, use is generally made of pin contacts of a straight type. In order to cope with high-speed transmission, a ground plate is interposed at least partially between adjacent contact arrays. The ground plate extends in the first or the second direction.
In the high-speed transmission, use is sometimes made of a differential transmission technique in which a signal is transmitted through a pair of transmission lines as a single signal path. In this case, the ground plate is fixedly arranged to extend in one of the first and the second directions so as to optimize transmission characteristics in the single signal path. On the other hand, a pair of contacts inserted and connected to the pair of transmission lines may be arranged in the first direction or the second direction. Therefore, the contact pair may possibly be unadapted to the arrangement of the ground plate. In this event, the transmission characteristics will be degraded.
It is assumed here that two back board side connectors same in structure are mounted on front and back surfaces of the back board at positions shifted by 90xc2x0 from each other and that pin contacts penetrating the back board are used in common by the two back board side connectors. In this case, the pin contacts can be paired in parallel to the ground plate in one connector on the front side of the back board. However, in the other connector on the other side of the back board, the same pin contacts are paired to be perpendicular to the ground plate with the ground plate interposed therebetween. This deteriorates the transmission characteristics. The above-mentioned problem can be avoided if connectors different in structure are used on the front and the back sides of the back board. However, such use of the connectors different in structure is uneconomical.
When the contacts are paired in a direction which is not accords with that of the package board side connector, a pair of the transmission lines are different in length from each other so that a so-called skew, i.e., a difference in propagation delay, is produced in the transmission line pair.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a connector element which contributes to improvement in transmission characteristic of a high-speed signal transmission line.
It is another object of this invention to provide a connector of a relay type excellent in transmission characteristic and superior in economical efficiency.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a connection apparatus using the above-mentioned connector.
Other objects of the present invention will become clear as the description proceeds.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connector element which comprises a plurality of contacts arranged in first and second directions perpendicular to each other on a predetermined plane to form a matrix, and a plurality of ground members extending substantially in parallel to one another in an oblique direction inclined with respect to the first and the second direction on the predetermined plane. At least one of the contacts is positioned between adjacent ones of the ground members.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connector which comprises two of the above-mentioned connector element. The connector elements are arranged adjacent to each other in a third direction perpendicular to the predetermined plane. The ground members in one of the connector elements are arranged in parallel to those in the other connector element.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connector to be connected to the first-mentioned connector. The connector comprises a housing and a plurality of contacts having contact contacting portions arranged within the housing in the first and the second directions to form a matrix. The housing has a plurality of slots extending in the oblique direction between adjacent ones of the contacting portions. The contact contacting portions are brought into contact with the contacts of the connector element with the ground members of the connector element received in the slots when the connector is connected to the connector element.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a connector apparatus which comprises a package board side connector mounted on a package board, and a back board side connector mounted on a back board to be connected to the package board side connector. The back board side connector comprises a plurality of conductive back board side contacts arranged in a matrix, a plurality of back board side ground plates, and an insulating housing holding the back board side contacts and the back board side ground plates. The back board side ground plates includes first and second back board side ground plates. At least one of the first and the second back board side ground plates is provided with a contacting portion connected to the other. The first back board side ground plate is arranged obliquely across contact-to-contact spaces defined between every two adjacent ones of the back board side contacts adjacent in a column or a row direction from one contact-to-contact space to another contact-to-contact space next adjacent to the one contact-to-contact space both in the column direction and the row direction. The second back board side ground plate is arranged between two adjacent ones of the back board side contacts and in a direction intersecting the first back board side ground plate.